Term 3 Week 3 2024

From the Principal

Dear Families,

Welcome to Catholic Education Week! Catholic Education Week provides an opportunity for staff, students, parents and the wider community to come together and appreciate the distinct nature of Catholic education and its commitment to academic excellence and spiritual growth.  It is a week where we recognise and celebrate the significant role that Catholic education plays in the lives of students and in the community as a whole. It is an opportunity to showcase the unique aspects of Catholic education and its commitment to academic excellence, faith formation, social justice, and community engagement. We have had such a wonderful week celebrating events such as Founders’ Day and Catholic Education Week Mass at the Cathedral in Townsville. During this week we also celebrate one member of our school community through the annual Spirit of Catholic Education Awards. The St Francis nominee for 2024 was Kathy Giddy. I would like to share Kathy’s nomination with you below.

At the Catholic Education Week Mass, Bishop Tim delivered a wonderful homily that made a connection between Catholic Education Week's theme of One faith, One hope, One love and the distinctive mission of Catholic education through the work that happens in our schools. Bishop Tim has given permission for this homily to be shared with you. I encourage you to take a few minutes to have a read and reflect on his words.

Have a wonderful week

Take care and God Bless

Amanda

Religious Life of the School

Dear families,

Catholic Education Week has been a busy one. Amanda, the school captains and I enjoyed a beautiful mass in Townsville on Tuesday to mark the occasion. The theme this year is Communities of Faith, Hope and Love.  This is the centre of all that Catholic Education is about and what our teachers strive for. The three Burdekin schools gathered today to celebrate our founders. The students had a fun day participating in activities and enjoyed the food provided.

God Bless

Nicole

Learning Corner

What do grades tell us?

Comparing your child’s grades with those of your friends, unfortunately almost comes into the same category as boasting about having the best, most up-to-date kitchen appliances. 

 A child who receives the highest grades and is rewarded for the achievement but has disappointment expressed when that mark is not attained, is being conditioned to think that only the best deserves recognition and that progress has no value.

In many cases this leads to anxiety with assessment. These children always ask ‘is this class for assessment?’ whenever they are presented with a task or project. Research has shown that children will look at the grade when work is returned and ignore the comments on what they did well and how they can progress with learning.

This decade there has been a growing emphasis on providing feedback to students about their learning as an ongoing process. Assessments that occur at a point in time, perhaps at the end of a teaching focus, are an opportunity to look closely, in a formal manner, at what skills and knowledge have become automatic for the students. 

In 2023 NAPLAN changed how it reports student demonstration of learning. Through adaptive questioning, children are able to more fully demonstrate what they know. Questions become easier or more difficult depending on student responses. The reporting has changed from bands to descriptors of: ‘needs additional support’, ‘developing’, ‘strong’  or ‘exceeding’. These are accompanied by a description of what the child was requested to demonstrate and what was demonstrated.

If we believe that learning is lifelong and is measured, informally, on a daily basis through observations and work samples then our reporting of student learning growth should focus on the curriculum expectations, what the student demonstrated, the next steps for learning and the progress that was made.

Every child needs to know they can learn by seeing their further progress and being challenged to make progress.

A great question to ask is; ‘what did you learn today that you did not know yesterday?’

Change is slow and messy and unfortunately there are pockets where the emphasis on ‘grades’ is great and determines the opportunity for enrolment. We will still see grades, A-E in student reports but the most accurate information on your child’s learning is what is provided in feedback and comments.

Stay in touch with your child’s teacher if you are concerned about your child’s learning progress.

Rita

Guidance Counsellor

In this edition of SchoolTV - ANXIETY

Most young people today experience anxiety at some point in their life. Sometimes that slight rush of anxiety that occurs prior to an exam or sporting event, can enhance their performance. However, experiencing too much anxiety, over long periods of time, can be extremely damaging to their health and wellbeing. There is a difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ anxiety.

Statistics show, that the psychological health of young people today is far worse than it was a generation ago. This is having an adverse affect on children in both primary and secondary levels. Some of their issues of concern include stress, school, study, body image and friendship.

Parents need to be aware of the warning signs of ‘bad’ anxiety. There are preventative measures parents can implement as well as teaching kids the skills to cope more efficiently with their anxiety.

Here is the link to the Anxiety edition of SchoolTV
https://sfatsv.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/youth-anxiety

P.A.T.H.

Birthdays

Community